The Marriage Plot

   I just finished reading The Marriage Plot, by Jeffrey Eugenides. I enjoyed it immensely; I don’t think it’s an instant classic, but I think it did everything it set out to do. The novel focuses on three recent graduates: Melissa Hanna, Leonard Bankhead, and Mitchell Grammaticus. Melissa, the main character, is an English major, interested in Austen and Victorian literature (the marriage plot in particular). She falls in love with Leonard. Leonard Bankhead is a biology student and manic depressive. He is charming and outgoing when he is teetering on the edge of his manic phases; but throughout the book he keeps falling into a full blown mania or into an almost catatonic state when he is depressed. Hanna falls in love with his borderline manic self, but his disease continually puts great strain on their relationship. Mitchell Grammaticus is a religion student, and one of the first friends Madeline makes in college. He nurses an unrequited love for her throughout the novel, which she consistently fails to return.

                The novel begins with the trio’s graduation from college; they all attend brown university. The novel follows them through the first year or so through their post-graduate life. Leonard has broken up with Madeline at the beginning of the novel, and she and Mitchell are no longer talking. Unbeknownst to Madeline, Mitchell is secretly in love with her, and Leonard has had a mental breakdown. We don’t quite like any of the main characters at the beginning of the novel. Madeline seems flighty and somewhat shallow; Mitchell seems intellectually snobbish and slightly misogynistic (one could easily imagine him as one of those men who constantly complain about being “friend-zoned”). Leonard , with his infinite capacity to observe and listen to those around him,  appears to be the most positive character, but the emotional distance he puts between himself and Madeline appears off-putting.

                As the novel progresses, we become more sympathetic towards Mitchell, and Leonard’s unsuitability becomes clearer and clearer. As Mitchell becomes less self-centered and self-pitying we start rooting wholeheartedly for him to win Madeline over. Leonard leaves Madeline for good, and it seems that Mitchell’s time has arrived. The two of them finally sleep with one another, but then Eugenides throws us a final curveball at the end; Mitchell realizes that she doesn’t love him – he is simply her “bachelorette survival kit.” Instead of asking her to marry him, Mitchell tells her that he now knows a marriage isn’t really what she needs.

                I’m not sure how true Mitchell’s epiphany is. I have a suspicion that his newfound insight into Madeline’s psyche is more of a defense mechanism. Part of me thinks that the sense of unreality he had when sleeping with Madeline was a result of the fact that he had fallen in love with an image of Madeline, and now he is confronted with the naked reality of her body . To me, it almost seems that Mitchell’s decision that it’s Madeline that doesn’t need him is simply the easiest way to avoid the dissonance between his ideal and a disappointing reality.